2017 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport review: A true happy medium

A sports car that deserves three levels of performance

February 22, 2017

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There’s something about a red sports car that takes you back in time, makes you feel like a kid again.

In this case, the Corvette Grand Sports takes me back to the summer of, I think, 2008, when I was working at a boatyard and dealing with a fair amount of fiberglass resin and hardener. The interior of this 'Vette smells like a Sea Ray factory. God, I miss those off-gassing ketones.

But once the smell dissipates, as I imagine it will, or you just get used to it, as I did, you’re left with one hell of a car. The engine kicks over with sort of a low-frequency grunt that you feel as much as hear. When I first drove off, on a cool fall day, the car wasn’t super happy -- tight turning maneuvers, such as those undertaken while parking, get a little crunchy due to the limited-slip differential and wide rear tires. The gear selector felt bound up, even notchy, which isn’t a good sign on a car that’s less than 4,000 miles old. It was impossible to put down any amount of power without the back tires wanting to hop around, and besides, the springy clutch wanted to bite.

Turns out everything just needed to get warmed up, including me. The gearbox smoothed out, and once you get the clutch feel down, you won’t forget -- like riding a bicycle. You won’t forget the sound, either. It’s spectacular.

Like each Stingray we’ve tested, this one is capable of some impressive acrobatics, and thanks to the fancy magnetorheological suspension standard on this trim, it’s capable of soaking up some gnarly road imperfections in the process.

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Unlike the new crop of modern, German sports cars, it demands you pay attention at all times. Get too comfortable and you run the risk of dropping into second gear a little too eagerly on a cold morning before the tires start gripping and sliding ass-backward into a ditch.

Or even worse, you could stall out at a stoplight.

So, it doesn’t drive itself. There are plenty of sports cars that very nearly do, but why would you want that?

You might wonder whether or not the world needed a car plunked down between the Z51 and the Z06; with a standard-issue LT1 lurking under all that bodywork and those ducts and Z06 haunches, you could accuse the Grand Sport as being a bit of a poser. But you’d be wrong. The Grand Sport is a happy medium, not a tarted-up compromise.

It’s not quite the same as the JaguarF-Type situation, where the V6 and V8 models have two different characters that will appeal to two different sorts of buyers. Here, I just can’t imagine wanting more than the Grand Sport for semi-daily use. If you’re looking at a Z06 for something other than track work, do yourself a favor and at least test the Grand Sport first. It looks mean, sounds meaner and I think you’ll find its 460 hp more than enough to keep you on edge.

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The seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette might be the last of the front-engine, rear-drive ‘Vette that America has held close to its heart for 53 years. While the base-spec seven-speed manual Stingray is probably more than enough for track duty, Chevy decided to take most of the duct work and track bits off its monstrous Z06 ‘Vette and slap them onto the less powerful base model.

That sounds good, right? You get all the mesmerizing suspension, wider rubber and aggressive (and effective) ducts slapped around the body. It does cost more, of course, but those parts aren’t free.

The Corvette Grand Sport isn’t exactly the spiritual successor to the race car of the 1960s, but more so of the menacing fourth-generation model. It takes the already superb handling C7 ‘Vette and makes it almost surgically precise. That precision is likely due to the big rubber, which takes time to heat up (as Graham experienced) and has a tendency to ball up during tight, low-speed maneuvers.

The transmission shifts about the same as seven-speed manual in the base-spec car; the throws are short and quick. I also thought it was notchy when cold, but after the transaxle gets warmed up, the shifts are as crisp as anything else on the road.

Managing the leftmost pedal takes some getting used to, especially in dense traffic during rainstorms. Even with its paltry 460 hp and 465 lb-ft of twist, the tires somehow like to walk around if you release the clutch too quickly. It’s also likely they could erupt in a plume of smoke at the command of the driver -- if you needed to quickly heat up the rears for competition use, of course.

The question should still linger: Is it worth paying the extra coin for better suspension tuning, graphics and aggressive-looking ducting? I don’t know if I can say it is, unless you actually plan on using it as a track weapon. For me, the base Corvette is more than a handful, without the added cost of the Grand Sport package. It should be noted, this could one day become a collectors' item if the Corvette does actually become a mid-engine supercar in 2019.